JESS Watterson makes no secret of the fact she likes to play attacking hockey, so come the 2021 season that's exactly what she hopes to be doing for the NSW Pride.
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The Bathurst talent was part of Pride's inaugural Hockey One campaign in 2019, playing four games for the New South Wales outfit which ended up placing sixth.
While the 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Watterson was invited to take part in a six-day Future Pride camp which concluded on Tuesday.
It was designed to let those with previous Pride experience like Watterson as well as others hoping to earn a place in the NSW Hockey One squads showcase their skills.
Bathurst's Tamsin Bunt was also invited.
"It was quite interesting because of COVID we couldn't travel or doing anything like that with players in different states, so it was good to have New South versus New South, we haven't done that in a little while," Watterson said.
"There were a lot of younger girls I didn't know, so it was good to play against them and test myself against some of the talent coming through.
"I was a chance for the young kids to get their name out in selection, they selected players from the Sydney Women's League competition, they picked the best out of that competition."
While Watterson played in the Central West's Premier League Hockey competition for Souths this year, she also lined up for the University of NSW Whalies in the Sydney Women's Hockey League's Metro 1.
She played eight of the nine games and scored twice as the Whalies finished in fourth spot.
But perhaps more importantly Watterson enjoyed her hockey and got through both campaigns without injury.
"I think the time off at the start of year really helped, because we didn't do as much hockey I kind of just eased myself into it," she said
"I think because we couldn't play hockey at the start of the season, once we were allowed the fire definitely came back."
As part of the Future Pride camp, Watterson took part in four intra-squad matches for Team Roar.
She and Orange talent Eva-Reith Snare helped Roar to beat the Lions in the opener, the Central West duo scoring in the 2-1 win.
In game two the Lions posted a 7-4 win, with Watterson again amongst the goal scorers for her side as she spent time in attack
The Bathurst talent was then switched around to fill a defensive role as Roar won game three 3-1 and the teams played out a 1-all draw in the final match.
Watterson naturally preferred her time as striker, but in the main she just wants to be part of Pride's 2021 campaign in a competition she feels is great for the profile of hockey in Australia.
"I'd like to go back to striker, I played defender in the last couple of games because of a few injuries, so to get back up the front would be nice," she said.
"But I think just to keep playing in that competition would be good as obviously it's a big step up from club to Pride."
